Language Service Providers

Who we are

Urgent Action Fund-Africa (UAF-Africa) is a consciously feminist and womn’s human rights pan-African Fund registered in Kenya and Zimbabwe. Operating as a virtual organisation, the Fund boasts of strategic presence in Africa’s five sub-regions- East Africa: Nairobi- Kenya, Kampala-Uganda, and Addis Ababa- Ethiopia; North Africa: Cairo- Egypt; West/ Central Africa: Yaoundé and Douala Cameroon; Southern Africa: Harare- Zimbabwe, Lilongwe- Malawi; Antananarivo- Madagascar, Johannesburg, Pretoria & Cape Town- South Africa, Gaborone- Botswana and West Africa: Abuja -Nigeria and Parakou- Benin and Lomé- Togo. Recognising the need to move resources rapidly on a continent where opportunities and threats arise and decline quickly, UAF-Africa uses a Rapid Response Grant-making mechanism to support unanticipated, time-sensitive, innovative, and unique initiatives that promote women’s agency in democratic governance, economic, environmental and climate justice, natural resources governance and conflict transformation while protecting their personhood, integrity, and rights.

The 3rd Feminist Republik Festival

UAF-Africa is hosting the 3rd Feminist Republik Festival (3rd FRF), set to take place in Mombasa, Kenya, from 26- 30 November 2025. With the bold and audacious theme of Regenerating in Crisis: Grounding Healing and Care in the Storm, the Festival aims to bring together more than 600 activists from across the globe.

This iteration of the Festival will center the experiences of African womn’s human rights defenders (AWHRDs) in crisis contexts, the traumas AWHRDs grapple with, how trauma plays out, is remembered, and is compounded in periods of crisis, and why we must center healing when it feels like our worlds are collapsing. At the Fund, the use of ‘womn’ is an act of challenging and replacing traditional ideas of what and who a womn is and can be and the links of women to a system of patriarchy where womn are, in effect, subject to men or a sub-category of men. Additionally, ‘womn’ for us also includes lesbian, bisexual womn and transwomn.

Call for Language Service Providers (Interpreters, Translators, Captioning Specialists, Transcriptionists)

To ensure accessibility and inclusivity for our diverse participants, UAF-Africa is seeking experienced language service providers who can offer interpretation, translation, captioning, and transcription services in English, French, Portuguese, Arabic, and Kiswahili. These services will be crucial in facilitating communication and knowledge sharing among activists, healers, and participants from across Africa.

Scope of Activities:

• Support UAF-Africa staff members and Festival staff in communicating with participants in their preferred languages.
• Translate and transcript all key Festival materials and documentation (program, agenda, signage, presentations, interviews, discussions, etc.)
• Offer multilingual and context-relevant interpretation, translation, and real-time captioning for Festival sessions and events.
• Provide transcripts and captions for audio/video content.
• Offer sign language interpretation for key sessions and events.

We are particularly interested in language service providers with:

• Strong understanding of feminist principles and issues related to gender equality, particularly with familiarity with the cultural context of African womn’s human rights defenders (AWHRDs).
• Proven experience in providing interpretation, translation, transcriptions, and live captioning for conferences, workshops, or festival settings, especially those with social justice, women’s rights, or feminist themes.
• Ability to handle sensitive and complex trauma-related topics, human rights, and intersectionality.
• Understanding of the importance of accessibility for diverse audiences.
• Ability to meet tight deadlines and maintain high quality.
• Ability to collaborate effectively with other language service providers and Festival participants.
• Certification or accreditation in interpretation is highly desirable.